Last year’s Farm Equipment coverage of the EDA survey noted AGCO was making significant gains across all 12 categories over a 3-year period.

Looking at the last 5 years, the full-line manufacturer still appears to be on an upward trajectory. AGCO’s average rating among the 12 criteria has increased each year reaching back to 2014. The company’s scores have also trended upward in all categories individually each year, save for a slight backstep in 4 categories in 2018 vs. 2017 and a negligible decrease (of one-hundredth of a point) in 1 category between 2016 and 2017.

Since 2016, when AGCO surpassed Case IH in average scoring, it has separated itself by a greater margin each year from both the Case IH and New Holland brands.

AGCO has made its largest improvement from 2014 to 2018 in the communications with management category, where its 2018 score increased 1.17 points, or 32.7%, relative to 2014.

Anthony Burkes with AGCO says the company saw opportunities to improve in that particular category back in 2014.

“We’ve certainly used the results to drive changes internally,” he says. “In 2014, the survey results revealed room for improvement with regard to communication with management. Our ‘On the Scene with Bob Crain’ video series and ‘Dealer Excellence Waylines’ newsletter are just two examples of initiatives that were launched to improve in this area.”

Shawn Skaggs of Livingston Machinery Co. says AGCO seems to be paying more attention to its smaller dealers, such as the single-store or two-store dealers, in recent years. That, he says, has helped improved its relationship with its dealer network.

Overall, Skaggs is happy with the strides AGCO has made in improving its EDA survey scores and its relationship with its dealers.

“You’re seeing slow, incremental change, positive change in their scores, and I think that’s a good sign,” Skaggs says. “If there was something that had a huge jump from one year to the next, it would almost have me a little worried because it might be some kind of gimmicky program that was put together that might not be a long-lasting change. But I like the idea of seeing that slow, incremental change in a positive direction on those surveys, because that means that overall, that they’re moving in the right direction and they’re hopefully making sustainable changes in that relationship.”

Other areas where AGCO has seen significant improvement include: Manufacturer response to dealer needs/concerns, which grew 0.87 points, or 25.4%, and the overall satisfaction rating, which jumped by 1.02 points, or nearly 25%, from 2014.

The manufacturer has made the smallest gains in marketing and advertising support, where it has only inched forward 2.1%, or less than one-tenth of a point, between 2014 and 2018. In fact, this was the only category in which AGCO did not see an improvement of at least 10% in that time period.